


little drops of starlight

by tonguetide



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - No Bending (Avatar TV), F/M, First Love, Fluff, Growing Up, Magic, School, Short Chapters, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, atlw is too heavy, i need light in my life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27557311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonguetide/pseuds/tonguetide
Summary: Katara and Zuko enter Hogwarts with the same fantasies everyone has—of brooms and wands and potions and spells.What they find—or, rather, who they find—turns out to be a lot more important.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	little drops of starlight

**Author's Note:**

> PLease don't ask me what this is. All I'd be able to tell you is that the chapters are going to be short, and there is going to be so much fluff and so little angst, because—let me tell you—all that lies within has filled my angst quota for a lifetime. This is my recovery fic, and I hope you don't hate it.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading! <3

“But, Mom—”

“No, Sokka.”

“But, _Mom_ —”

“Ha,” Katara says, smirking and crossing her arms. “I _win_.”

“You do _not._ Mom, she—”

“I said no, Sokka. It’s been settled, and it’s no longer up for debate.”

Sokka slumps down in his chair. His fork clatters to his plate. “This is so unfair.”

“I think it’s super fair,” Katara says.

“Of course _you_ do. You’re the one who gets to skip.”

“Katara isn’t skipping any school, Sokka,” their father says appeasingly. “She’ll end up going for as many years as you do.”

“She’s _literally_ skipping a year!”

“It’s because I’m _smart_ , Sokka,” Katara says smugly. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Their mother frowns at her. “There’s no need to be rude, Katara.”

“I’m just _saying_. If he was smart, the Headmaster would send him the same letter _I_ got, and he could skip a grade, too.”

“That isn’t how it works,” their father says. “Just because Sokka hasn’t skipped a year doesn’t make him any less smart than you.”

Sokka nods aggressively. “Right,” he says.

“It kinda does, though,” Katara says.

Sokka shakes his head aggressively. “Wrong,” he says.

Katara is looking at the crab cakes in front of her, but if she’d glanced toward the head of the table, she’d have seen her mother drag her hands down her face. If she’d looked closer yet, she’d have seen the corners of her mother’s lips twitch up.

“This is exhausting,” her mother mutters.

Their father chuckles. Katara looks at him strangely. What Mom said wasn’t even _funny_. Dad’s always doing that, though—laughing at everything Mom says, no matter what.

“It’s the safest response to anything your spouse says,” he’d told her when Mom had given him Ju Dee’s _Book of Household Cleaning Spells_ for his birthday.

Katara hadn’t really been listening. She’d been holding a chocolate frog. Gran-Gran had given a _giant_ pack to Dad, and he had slipped one to her and Sokka when Mom wasn’t looking. 

She doesn’t have any chocolate frogs to distract her now, unfortunately—just plain old Muggle food.

Her dad’s recountings of Great Hall meals have never seemed more appealing. Nor have they ever seemed more attainable.

She grins. School is _coming_. One year earlier than she’d thought.

It can’t come soon enough.

“You’re going to ruin my first year,” Sokka says, groaning.

“No, I will _not,_ ” she says, and the vehemence in her tone pairs strangely with the smile on her lips.

“Yes, you _will_.”

“She won’t be there until your second year,” their father reminds him.

She shouldn’t be there until my _third_ year,” Sokka says, glaring. “I can’t believe you’re letting her move up.”

“Sokka,” their mother warns. “That’s enough.”

He mutters something under his breath and stabs his fork into a crab cake.

Later—after the plates and the cups and the silverware have all been cleaned and cleared by _hand;_ after they’ve retired to their different rooms; after the candles have been pinched out—her door squeaks open.

She doesn’t blink. She’s already sitting up. She has far too much on her mind to be able to fall asleep tonight.

She waves. “Mom told you to come in here, didn’t she?”

“No,” Sokka whispers, moving deeper into the room. “She thinks I’m asleep.”

Katara giggles. Sokka shushes her.

“We’re such rebels,” Katara says.She scoots over to make room for him on the cot, and he climbs up next to her.

“If you think _this_ is rebellion, you’ll die when you set foot in school.”

“Die?”

“Yes. On the spot.”

Katara scrunches her nose. “No I won’t,” she says. “I’ll know magic to protect myself.”

“Not the first day you get there!”

She leans to the side to pull a book out from under her bed. “I know a lot of spells already,” she says. “I’ve been studying them for ages.”

“You’re such a nerd.”

She hits him with the book.

“Ow! Katara!”

“ _Shhh_ ,” she whispers, cackling.

Sokka scowls. “You know, I _did_ come in here to apologize, but now I think I’m just going to leave.”

“No,” Katara says through her laughter. “Sorry, sorry. I’ll stop.”

Valiant effort is not enough—she takes one look at him and descends into laughter again.

Sokka glares. “What are you even laughing about?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I hit you with a book.”

He sighs. “Everyone’s going to bully you at school.”

Her laughter dies abruptly. She turns to him with big, young, fearful eyes. “They will _not,_ ” she says, with more confidence than she feels.

He wraps an arm around her shoulder. “Nah, they won’t. I won’t let them.”

She smiles.

“I’m actually really excited you’re coming with me.”

“Well, it’s still one year away.”

“I know. Better than two.”

Silence descends, light and easy. Firework thoughts explode in her mind—colorful, bright, excited.

Only one more year. One long year, without Sokka.

It’s okay. She can wait. Well, she _can’t_ wait—but she must, so she will.

She’s excited.

When Sokka starts to snore, she hits him with the book again.

He yelps so loudly he wakes their father. She giggles until she wakes their mother.

Their punishments are different: no reading spell books for Katara; no eating Bertie Bott’s Beans for Sokka.

As Katara crawls back into bed, though, she finds that the disappointment doesn’t last long.

After all, she has a whole lifetime of magic ahead of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love you @antarcticas


End file.
